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Naomi Okubo “From Here to Somewhere, From Somewhere to Here”
Gallery MoMo Projects
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Artists
Naomi Okubo
Born in Tokyo in 1985, Naomi Okubo received her MFA from Musashino Art University in 2011, was selected for the Shell Art Award in 2005, and won the Tokyo Wonder Wall Award in 2007. Okubo participated in the Asian Student and Young Artists Art Festival in Seoul, Korea, and has exhibited at A.Styale Gallery (Hong Kong), Gallerie Christoffer Egelund (Denmark), and Elsa Gallery (Taiwan). She participated in a residency program in Sweden, where she held a solo exhibition. Her work was later acquired by the Hallands Konstmuseum in Sweden. She stayed in New York from 2017 to 2019 under the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Overseas Study Program for Artists and then continued her stay under the Yoshino Gypsum Art Foundation’s Overseas Study Program before returning to Japan in 2020.
From the beginning of her career, Okubo’s work has focused on delicate relationships with others, depicting the inner lives of impressionable young girls. By using herself as a motif and hiding her face, Okubo allows the viewer to see themselves, or a woman close to them, superimposed on the girl in her work and has gained the sympathy of many people regardless of nationality. While gaining the experience of connecting herself to others through the process of dressing up in human relationships, she has attempted to create works that show a cross-section of contemporary society by considering the function and meaning of decoration and its relevance to society in the face of invisible social pressure on how we should behave (dress up). While deepening her interest in socially relevant themes as she has accumulated various experiences and her relationships with others have changed, Okubo’s work does not directly express strong messages, as various issues are buried within society, while maintaining their delicate and vivid depictions. However, the beautifully rendered decorations and the sometimes patterned appearance of multiple identical figures on the screen evoke a strange feeling of unease in the viewer, giving the work a dualistic quality.
For this exhibition, Okubo says, “I hope to create an exhibition that will give viewers a clue to move forward while struggling with changing values.” This exhibition shows new work and installations that show glimpses of the current sense of stagnation and contradiction in a room surrounded by seemingly beautiful greenhouses and ornamental plants, while using various contradictions from her stay in the US and her own familiar problems as themes.
From the beginning of her career, Okubo’s work has focused on delicate relationships with others, depicting the inner lives of impressionable young girls. By using herself as a motif and hiding her face, Okubo allows the viewer to see themselves, or a woman close to them, superimposed on the girl in her work and has gained the sympathy of many people regardless of nationality. While gaining the experience of connecting herself to others through the process of dressing up in human relationships, she has attempted to create works that show a cross-section of contemporary society by considering the function and meaning of decoration and its relevance to society in the face of invisible social pressure on how we should behave (dress up). While deepening her interest in socially relevant themes as she has accumulated various experiences and her relationships with others have changed, Okubo’s work does not directly express strong messages, as various issues are buried within society, while maintaining their delicate and vivid depictions. However, the beautifully rendered decorations and the sometimes patterned appearance of multiple identical figures on the screen evoke a strange feeling of unease in the viewer, giving the work a dualistic quality.
For this exhibition, Okubo says, “I hope to create an exhibition that will give viewers a clue to move forward while struggling with changing values.” This exhibition shows new work and installations that show glimpses of the current sense of stagnation and contradiction in a room surrounded by seemingly beautiful greenhouses and ornamental plants, while using various contradictions from her stay in the US and her own familiar problems as themes.
Schedule | Sep 25 (Sat) 2021-Oct 23 (Sat) 2021 Opening Hours Information
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Venue | Gallery MoMo Projects https://en.gallery-momo.com/  | ||||
| Location | 2F 6-2-6 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032 | ||||
| Access | Near exit 1b at Roppongi Station on the Hibiya line, 3 minute walk from exit 3 at Roppongi Station on the Hibiya or Toei Oedo line. | ||||
| Phone | 03-3405-4339 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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